Butterscotch is back!

[Victory]

Butterscotch slowly walked through the hustle and bustle of Ponyville. She had taken a trip to Dream Valley in hopes of finding a publisher for her new novel, The Case of the Cracked Pearl. No such luck. She was feeling a little blue, but she found it lifted her spirits a little to be back home.

Our heroine, the world-renowned detective Butterscotch, felt a small shiver of delight. There's no place like home! There was rarely a good mystery to be found these days... But sometimes, even the sharpest of minds needed rest.

Butterscotch sat down by the fountain. Maybe she should apply what she knew to her writing... base a book on her own experiences. That sounded like a great idea... but she would need two things first. A sidekick and a mystery.
Sigh. The gold earthling slumped a little more. The chances of an exciting mystery happening in her hometown where slim to none.

[silverfall]

"Shooby-doo. Shoop, shoop..." Razz's singing trailed off as he approached. "Hullo, Butterscotch. Have you just come back? How's the writing? And how was your trip to Dream Valley?"

[Victory]

Butterscotch glanced up, and immediately sprung to her hooves. "Hi Razz! Yeah, I just got back a few minutes ago. I got rejected again, but I've got a great new idea for a new book... Dream Valley was nice, but everyone there is always in such a hurry... How's business back at the shop?"

'Ah,' Butterscotch sighed to herself, 'nothing lifts your spirits like seeing a friendly face.' She smiled warmly at her old friend Razzaroo. It was truly good to be home.

[silverfall]

"Oh, business is booming," Razz said, laughing. "I actually made a sale today. Too bad about your book. But I bet those Dream Valley publishers wouldn't know a good thing if it came up and bit them in the cutie mark." He winked.

[Victory]

"Only one? But you've got such neat stuff! I'm going to have to stop by later and lighten my pocketbook a little." Butterscotch giggled. "You've got a way with words, Razz. You always could cheer me up."
Just like that time when she was still little and had tried to visit the other side of the rainbow. The first five tries she had slid back down uselessly. On the sixth try, she had taken a running start, jumped, and missed the rainbow entirely. She instead got to tumble down one of the tallest hills in Ponyville and sprain a hoof.

[silverfall]

"Oh, that would be great if you stopped by! Of course, I'm not there right now..." Razz said innocently, "but I should end up back there eventually. Right now I'm looking for my friend. She's new here, so I don't think you would have met her yet. She's a pretty silver unicorn. Her name is Silverfall."

[Victory]

"Silverfall, hm? You mind if I help you look? She sounds nice," Butterscotch tilted her head and smiled. "Besides, I've really got nothing better to be doing."

This was an interesting turn of events... Razzaroo had made a lady friend while our heroine was away. But what motives did this Silverfall character really have? Was there something more to their relationship? Or was this unicorn merely using Razz as a...

No, scratch that. This is a mystery, not a romance novel.

[silverfall]

"That would be great! Oh, you'd like her. She's got this big shepherd dog that does really great tricks. He can wave paw and he barks on command. Oh, and he does this thing where he tries to find his tail," -Razz spins to immitate-, "which is really funny because he doesn't have a tail. Well, he has a tail, but it's just a little bob-tail. So when she says 'Bandit, where's your tail?' he spins around and around, like, 'Oh, no! Where's my tail!' Razz stopped spinning, feeling slightly dizzy.

"So I guess we should go looking for her now. Where do you want to go first?"

[Victory]

Butterscotch burst into laughter at Razzaroo's spinning, excited blurb. "Glad to see you're so enthusiastic about finding your friend..." This quickly-forming mystery (The Case of the Missing Unicorn) was the best welcome she could think of. This was definitely a job for Butterscotch, world-famous detective. "Now, in order to find Silverfall, we must think like Silverfall. Tell me more about her... where would she be likely to go?" She paced back and forth while she said this. The very epitome of a brilliant mind. Whatever an epitome was.

[silverfall]

"Uh," Razz steadied himself. "Where would Silverfall go? Hmm... well, she seems to like strange and unusual things, so she might be at my shop. Except I left my shop to find her, so maybe that's not quite right. She doesn't eat much of my cooking, so maybe she's having something to eat at the cafe? Or she likes animals, so maybe she's at the pet shop!"

Razz made a small circle as he chatted, drawing first in one direction, then back again.

"But, you know, she's not exactly the kind of pony you find here in Ponyville. She's kind of moody and distant. I can't really think of any place specific in town that she'd like to visit."

[Victory]

"Distant, likes animals and strange things..." Butterscotch wished she could write this all down. It would look more professional. "Interesting. Where did you last see her, and how long ago?"

Her interests ruled out the castle. It was always full of chattering ponies, and Butterscotch didn't think they allowed pets inside. The dance club was also ruled out. It was closed during the day, wasn't it? There were so many uncertainties in this case... it would be a tricky one.

[silverfall]

"Hmm, well, the last place I saw her was at my shop," Razz said as he began to retrace his steps. "We had just gotten back after the fire. Oh, by the way, there was fire in the neighborhood while you were gone. The rain put it out, but some homes were damaged.

"Silverfall and I had just got back from an adventure and we were looking for strange and unusual things around town. Well, did we ever find them! First Meadowbrook's shop was set on fire by a vandal, some green pony that no one's ever seen around here before. That's about when Sil and I were separated the first time. While searching for her, I stopped at the theater to ask this pretty red unicorn if she had seen her.

"Well, then the pretty red unicorn got very sick and this strange orange pony came along and told us we had to get some special plant to make medicine for her. Actually, he's not so strange cuz I met him earlier. His name is Glayse and he's new here, too. But Silverfall thinks he's up to no good because he's been spotted a lot with the green pony and I guess that one's infatuated with fire because she's been setting the whole neighborhood on fire.

"Anyway it was lucky I ran into Meadowbrook because she just happen to know where to find that special plant for the sick pony. That's about when I ran into Silverfall again because that's when the big fire started. After that we went back to my shop.

"Silverfall thinks that there is going to be trouble in Ponyville and that the pretty red unicorn, the orange pony Glayse, and the green pony are all in on the trouble-making. I got upset and I think I may have upset her in turn.

"And that's when I lost her again. She left."

[Victory]

"A FIRE?! ... Arson? ... Sickness... Drama... Suspense... A PERFECT mystery! Leave it to me to miss everything exciting!" Butterscotch rapped her forehead against the edge of the fountain. "Gah... Remind me to hit something later. But, er... Silverfall didn't wink, did she? That would make her much harder to find..."

[silverfall]

"Um," Razz looked puzzled. "No, I don't think so. She rolls her eyes a lot, but I'm not sure what that has to do with where she went? Why does winking make her harder to find?"

Razz started blinking his eye rapidly, as if to solve this mystery for himself.

[Victory]

"No, silly, not that kind of winking!" Butterscotch giggled. "I mean the unicorn kind... where they disappear and then reappear somewhere else. There's supposed to be a whole bunch of light, and a bang or something or other, so it would be pretty hard to miss."